A new scientific documentary about Madeira’s deep underwater secrets will premier tomorrow, Friday the 5th of June at 10 pm, on RTP-Madeira.
According to the Regional Directorate for the Environment and Climate Change (DRAAC), Manuel Ara Oliveira, the documentary is based on the scientists 10 dives aboard the LULA 1000 submarine, from the Rebikoff foundation, which enabled them – Andreia Henriques, João Clode, Manuel Biscoito, João Delgado and Pål Mortensen, – to document “the first glimpses of Madeira’s deep sea underwater life.”
The mission’s original focus was on collecting information about the detrimental affects of marine litter, however, a thousand metres down, in absolute darkness, the LULA lights revealed a whole new world, the deep waters of Madeira which are, after all, an Atlantic biodiversity hotspot.
“This is a project’ said Manuel Ara Oliveira, “which DRAAC became deeply involved in, was to learn about our environmental status, particularly in terms of marine litter, as well as to learn about our natural heritage, species and deep sea habitats.”
According to the regional director, this documentary “gives everyone the chance to see the wondrous biodiversity that lays hidden in the depths of the ocean. Not only will it peek public interest but the findings will be of great scientific interest to Portuguese and foreign laboratories and research centres. This first mission was also intended to provoke. To provoke curiosity, to create opportunities and interest in so many areas, from geology to biology, from monitoring to conservation, from the environment to underwater heritage, from science to leisure.”
For a brief look at things to come, please watch the video below.
http://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1104616979937676
Alternatively, you can view the video at www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1104616979937676
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
